School cell-phone grab protested

Parents threaten suit over Nazareth High checking messages.

April 20, 2004|By Nancy Averett Of The Morning Call

The parents of a Nazareth Area High School student say an assistant principal and teacher broke the law when they confiscated their son's cell phone last month and accessed his voice mail and text messages.

Toby and Leigh Klump told the school board Monday that they will file a lawsuit if the board does not take disciplinary action against the administrator, Marge Grube, and the teacher, Shawn Kimberly Kocher.

School board President Don Keller told the Klumps the board's Personnel Committee will discuss the matter.

The Klumps say Kocher took their son Christopher's cell phone on March 17 and gave it to Grube. School district policy forbids beepers or cell phones on school grounds during school hours.

The Klumps say their son had violated this policy on six or seven occasions in the past, and Grube always returned the phone at the end of the day.

This time, the Klumps say, Grube with the help of Kocher, who is a technology teacher, accessed Christopher's voice mail and a phone list. Then they say Grube began contacting other Nazareth students on Christopher's list.

"She told kids she was [Christopher] calling, and if they picked up or called her back, she confiscated their phone," said Leigh Klump.

Grube and Kocher attended Monday's meeting but referred all questions to the district solicitor, Preston W. Mortiz. Moritz said it is illegal to discuss teacher discipline.

However, in a letter to the Klumps' attorney, Moritz wrote the board would consider the Klumps' request that Grube and Kocher be temporarily and possibly permanently removed from the district. "At the very least, required attendance at a student rights workshop will be forthcoming."

Mortiz also wrote in the letter that "the school will reimburse phone costs to anyone who incurred costs because of the incident, a written policy will be produced, written apologies will be given to the parents of any student called "

The Klumps said Grube kept Christopher's cell phone until the afternoon of March 19, when the Klumps came to the school and picked it up.

They say their phone records for that period show that Grube and Kocher made the calls to other students, listened to Christopher's voice mail, and sent and deleted text messages, including one to their other son, who is 10.

The couple confronted school officials with this evidence. They say Grube then claimed that she had a right to look at Christopher's text messages because his phone was confiscated because he had been caught sending a text message.

The Klumps say Grube said she became concerned about a message on Christopher's phone in which a girl stated, "I need a tampon!" Grube said she believed that message was a code for a marijuana cigarette, and she contacted the other students in an attempt to uncover drug dealing in the school.

But the Klumps say the tampon request was legitimate. They also say the phone records show that message was sent on March 16, the day before Grube and Kocher took Christopher's phone.

The Klumps acknowledge that their son has a "severe case of senioritis" that was concerning them, and they asked Grube for help. Still, they said, if Grube suspected that their son was using or dealing drugs, she should have told them first.

"They should have called the police and contacted us immediately," Toby Klump said. "I would have yanked him out of class if I thought he was using drugs and made him pee in a cup right there."

Also Monday, School Director Tom Maher urged the board to consider cutting the district's instrumental and string music programs. Maher said students are pulled out of class too frequently for nonacademic reasons. He suggested moving the music programs to after school. A special budget meeting that will focus on that issue and others will be held at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.